h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

That's an excellent plan about the so will have curiosity about scents and then when they meet face to face they will be more familiar

Yes indeed I felt a surprising amount of satisfaction for something so seemingly small, finding that rogue cell We plan to meet on Thursday and hopefully will be able to sort it out so the results will put the organisation closer to the middle where we should be rather than towards the edge of the sector data, which is where we were in January.

That's good news that the presentation didn't announce more redundancies, but the spin on it does illustrate the saying 'those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it, and those who do know history are doomed to watch others repeating it'... I wondered when it would be announced, as I saw the consultation back in March, and I saw some other consultation results published on the OfS website this month, but not that one!

Yes, Souvenir Programme 9 is a very rich series, with lots in it for different people. Deborah caught my attention, of course, but I have more focus on the stories than the characters - so well observed about life and death, that JF could almost be writing about events in my family... Lovely in a way, that I'm not alone in that because JF knows about those sorts of events, because other families do, too, but still not easy to listen to. No problem, anyway - BBC Sounds is flexible so I can listen when I'm ready

My mum went up in the loft today with her friend who's an antiques dealer. She wants to sell some stuff and I've asked to see it first - some things she calls junk, but some of those things are treasures in my memory. She did find some treasures for keeping, though - my grandad's archive from 1939-45, and my dad's archive from his military service. I have a very vague memory of seeing my dad's badges, but many years ago, so it will be interesting to see. We had a good time looking at his 1957 photo album when he was researching A87959678

That will be good to team up for roof repairs Coincidentally I sent an e-mail about roof repairs earlier today - the whole block of flats needs attention at the same time, so everyone will share in the cost, but it takes some organising (we tried last year, but didn't have enough in the budget, so it was deferred to this year and now we're struggling to find companies who can do the work before winter)...

The have seen each other but we are still pretty much keeping them separate, and letting them have their own spaces in the house as well as shared zones so hopefully it will be an easy, stress-free transition. So far that seems to be working, but we'll see long term. The kittens are staying in my son's room full time and only allowed out for short, supervised expeditions around the house when the other s are out at present.

There have been some funny/not funny situations at work in my new role in the Quality team. First of all, some students have returned from taking a year's suspension to their BA (Hons) English & Creative Writing course, only to find that all the teaching staff were made redundant over the summer. They looked to see if there were any active students before sacking staff - but either didn't think to look for suspended ones or didn't care, and now we have students wanting to get their degree with no-one to teach them.

The other, more amusing situation is that after all the previous teaching team behind the Adult Nursing Practice degree left, their replacements said that they wanted to change the name to 'Adult Nursing' as they had done a UCAS search for Adult Nursing Practise and Solent hadn't come up in the top results. With visibility an important part of recruitment, approval was given internally for them to begin the name-change process and, as anything to do with 'Nursing' needs Royal College of Nursing approval, lots of paperwork was prepared to get the name change approved by this accrediting body too. So after a lot of paperwork, meetings (internally and externally) had all concluded was it revealed that the new Adult Nursing Practice course leader had all this time been trying to look up 'Adult Nursing Practise' courses - which is of course the US spelling, and so by spelling it wrong had been unable to find Solent's course, spelt with a C.

I'm glad you've had a chance to see the treasures and to ensure that you too can see what is and isn't junk and see what family mementoes you have. Sadly when my granddad died, my mum just sold off everything, including all his medals.

Hope this posts - been a frustrating week on h2g2!

<BB<

Certainly has been a frustrating week on h2g2 - still getting 504 errors every now and then, but they seem friendly compared to the 522 errors...

That's a good idea to introduce under supervision and keep them separate at other times, just in case Sounds promising for long-term success

That is shocking about the students on suspension of study returning to find their course is gone Very sad that that wasn't thought of as it is such a common occurrence (reminds me of when I was an administrator, I inherited a student who had started before the Uni gained its own degree awarding powers and had had to take 7 years suspension of study off and on. We had a special handbook of regulations just for her - when she graduated after 14 years, the whole team celebrated with her ).

Also shocking about the market research using skewed data My first thought was that there was no particular reason to change the name to Adult Nursing, because if people searched for Adult Nursing, surely Adult Nursing Practice would show up anyway... What a punchline that the only reason Adult Nursing Practice didn't show up was because of a US spelling in the search Says more about the Search Engine Optimisation of the website than the design of the course... This sort of thing does make me worry, that some people like to do things the hard way rather than thinking whether there's an easy way... (hence this week, after I found that problem with the cell in the spreadsheet, suggestions to simplify the spreadsheet and speed up the process have not been well-received...)

I also had an away day - not the most fun, as it was basically a series of lectures that could have been done online, but at least I got free and and had a bit of a chat with colleagues. It was a funny building that I hadn't been to before - shaped like an E, but only one of the prongs of the E had a ramp, and the ramp, room and toilet were all in different prongs. I got lost, but luckily one of my colleagues found me and I wasn't very late after all because the team leader had only just managed to set up the powerpoint presentation when I arrived

That is sad about your grandad's medals I must admit, the archive my mum has isn't the whole of my grandad's archives - he was compiling some memorabilia before he died, with the aim of donating it to a museum, but a came into the house within hours, searching for cash, and dumped it as she thought it was worthless junk Very sad, but at least we still have grandad's diary from the year he met my nana 'One man's trash is another man's treasure' is an apt phrase indeed.

That's quite a shocking length of time for a student to be at uni . Was that a postgraduate student? We'd normally have a 5-year undergraduate limit to length of study for full time, I think it is 8 years part time? Been a while since I was involved in that side of things.
But I suppose in the Quality office I'll be involved in all sorts of things which involve interpreting the university's regulations and statutory requirements, so hopefully I'll get to hear all about the interesting cases when things go wrong.

We're having an away day next month - which is two floors up from where we are. Solent's quite a small campus - and getting smaller all the time as the VCs keep selling off bits of it (and closing useful outbuildings like the bike shed) so there aren't any buildings on the main campus I've not been in, and not much left off campus these days either.
An E-shaped building always reminds me of the typical Elizabethan manor house... Not good that the university isn't very wheelchair friendly or navigable, though.

This weekend the weather's been poor, I've had inexplicable injuries and spent most of it indoors, so I've been doing some doodling. On my latest book in the 'Eve Eel' series (not decided on a title yet) I have finally got to write down the key words 'A wop bop a loo bop a lop bam boom' which of course, naturally, the whole plot revolves around. I've now done almost 75 pages. It will be interesting to see how it works when I finished as I started, did 21 pages in the hope that I'd get an idea and didn't, put it on hold for 6 months to do the Pope and Uni s before finally returning to it with a story idea but the first 21 pages pointing in the wrong direction, so having to turn the narrative to face the right way, which now leaves me with only 25 pages to finish implementing my idea, reach a climax, tidy up any loose ends and lead into the next . So I'll be intrigued to see if the book comes across as disjointed as the process in doodling it.

<BB<

Yes! The student did exceed my uni's limits, but as she had started under a different uni's regulations, they allowed her to carry on, hence we ended up with a handbook specific to her! The Quality department was indeed involved with all that, so you are likely to get involved with interesting cases

Yes, our campus is shrinking, too (although the bicycle shed has survived for now). There are still a few buildings I've not been in before, though - some are restricted labs, but some have only recently had ramps installed at the entrances.

Sorry about the inexplicable injuries - I hope they soon resolve Yes, the weather is definitely wet and windy... Glad it was a good opportunity for you to do doodling and that's good that the older doodles are shaping up into a story

I had a good weekend indoors - my sister was able to drop by for a visit, so we enjoyed looking at medals etc. My dad's archive was very interesting - some qualification certificates as well as an ID badge from work and the badges off his military uniform, plus his collection of coins and other badges

I had a good day on Saturday, too - I found some bargains in the supermarket, so a welcome parcel is on its way to you (delivery updates via your gmail)

Ah! Out of curiosity, before you got your own Awarding Powers, which uni were you linked to? When Solent was the Southampton Institute our degrees were awarded through Nottingham Trent. That was a couple of years before my time, though.
Solent has centralised its campus in some ways, with most of its buildings interlinked, though two buildings at the back are now building sites. Mind you when I started two buildings - the Spark and Sports Building - both were the site of the ambulance station

Once again I'd like to emphasise how you never have to send us anything, although I assure you that it is definitely appreciated. I'll look forward to hopefully seeing it tomorrow.

As for the inexplicable injuries - well I had ankle issues (not inexplicable, I have joint hypermobility which isn't usually an issue, though I'm not sure how I caused it this time as I was sat at my desk not moving at the time) and so chose to marshal parkrun as I couldn't run, but the inexplicable injury amusingly is that I somehow gave myself two blisters through waving a pompom . That's got to be a new one for the accident book.

In today's page I have written the word 'Zoo' eight times.

<BB<

Nottingham Trent is an impressive distance away Ours were Liverpool, as that was the closest

Yes, a busy time over summer for building sites, as usual. We have a new-build that will be joining two older buildings together. Clever, but can be confusing - reminds me of a lift in the building where my office used to be. The lower ground floor is in Building A. The ground floor is Building B and the first floor is Building C. The second floor is Building B again (took me years to work that one out...)

That is inexplicable that your ankles injured themselves while you were sitting down... Glad you were able to do volunteering at parkrun instead, although that is an unusual injury to get blisters from a pompom! I hope everything settles down very soon

Intriguing that sounds like it features people going to the 'Zoo, Zoo, Zoo'

My pleasure to send a parcel - I do enjoy a catfood pick and mix and I found a box just the right size

I had more tyre valve problems in the last couple of weeks, so I got replacement inner tubes today - all the hair and mud and stuff that got wrapped round the axles was also cleaned out, so the wheelchair is running much more smoothly now

Thanks HUGELY! for the parcel with lots of exciting treats for and for us humans - very much appreciated and once again you definitely didn't need to, though it is very much appreciated. Hopefully you'll be able to meet the kittens at some point, though of course we'll have twice as many cats which I don't know whether would be more likely to trigger allergies?

My only news of the day was that I got an e-mail response from the dentist to the e-mail I sent them in August (so not the fastest at responding):
"Thank you for your email.
We opened yesterday for the 1st time since administrators closed our doors on 19th July.
At the moment we have a dental therapist here, unfortunately they only do basic check ups and fillings. Once we have a Dentist here that can continue your treatment, we will contact you to book an appointment."

So not much progress there, but nice to know that teeth can have therapy. It is, though, a filling that I want, so still not helpful.

Good to know you've got replacement inner tubes and the chair is running better

Fortunately the uni where I work no longer has the particularly confusing building, but there is still a staircase that goes nowhere.

<BB<

Yay! Glad the parcel arrived in good time Yes, I look forward to meeting at some point. Luckily my allergy to cats is not too bad - my sister has 6, but I'm OK for a few hours I enjoy elephants, but they can trigger my allergy if I go inside the elephant house for more than a few minutes, and dogs are also quite fast (less than an hour before sneezing starts).

I didn't know there were teeth therapists either... Sounds like the Physician Associates that are nearly but not quite entirely unlike GPs... At least you got a response to your e-mail, but that is not very helpful - will they contact you in a few weeks, or a few months, that is the question? All the best with it all

A staircase that goes nowhere is the counterpoint to a lift that goes to 3 buildings

My fridge freezer is starting to malfunction, but it has served me well for 14 years exactly, and it served my predecessors for a while before that, too Luckily I have identified a replacement today, so hopefully the switchover will go well within the next few days

I hope the fridge swapping has gone well - did you have to leave the new one to stand for a day before putting things in, meaning you gad to keep the old one on but possibly not where you would normally? If so, hope you've managed to cope with having double fridges in a kitchen, or survived for a length of time fridgeless.

The staircase used to go somewhere, but with the changes with new buildings built and the conversion of what was the staff room to become the print shop, then reprographics and now is the campus shop (whose milk costs 10p more than Asda and goes off within 24 hours) means that the stairway doesn't actually go down anymore, leaving it randomly stranded. But there are two buildings being mothballed at present, with a secret connecting staircase between them, so I suppose that might well be another stairway that goes nowhere. I liked that secret staircase, it always seemed very random. And narrow.

Hope you have a good weekend - it's a quiet one here. I managed to do parkrun - today's the 20th anniversary.

<BB<

While I think about it - I did have a bemusing experience when I went to the office on Thursday - at nammettime I was walking through the city centre when I went into WH Smiths, which isn't unusual, only upstairs next to the Post Office, they've now inexplicably bunged a Toys'R'Us toy shop section, which seemed bizarre...

<BB<

Yes, the fridge swapping was smoother than expected - I got a call to say they could deliver it next week on a day when I'm expecting to be out on a birding trip, so I asked for another date and they said yesterday! They took the old one away before the new one was delivered. Not too bad, though - the malfunction warning light turned on a week ago, so that gave me time to use up as many items as I could (still frozen/cold but at a temperature that needed them to be used up within a month), leaving only a bit for my mum to store for a while. The and managed in the new fridge while it was getting up to temperature I'm pleased with it - I haven't got the hang of shutting the doors yet, as the old doors had a swing that I was used to, but I'll get there, and I like how quiet it is compared to the old one

Tricky about campus shops, that they can't compete with supermarkets unless the products are subsidised... My uni has tried various different things, even once putting a bale of hay in the middle of the store to display vegetables that were grown on campus, but it has long been a struggle. The bookshop/stationery shop closed down before Covid - I used to enjoy it in there of a lunchtime.

I listened to Episode 4 of Souvenir Programme Series 9 and found it good - poignant but not desperately so. Good to hear more jigsaw pieces slotting into place, eg how 'Since you asked me' started out Very funny this evening that I watched another episode of Miranda and John Finnemore had a substantial role alongside Margaret Cabourn-Smith and Carrie Quinlan His character is so like we could imagine Arthur would be if he got married

I went on a shoe hunt today, but was sadly unsuccessful as the type I like were not in stock and the ones I tried on didn't quite fit. The first shop had a very messy display, so I left quite quickly rather than getting sucked into spending all day trying to put the shoes into some sort of helpful order... The second shop was neater, but still lacking in options (now I think of it, they must be low on school-type shoes at this time of year, as summer is probably the peak of when people want/need to buy them). I think I'll have to try ordering some online, but will check about returns options, as the probability that the shoes don't fit is quite high...

Glad your injuries resolved enough for you to do the anniversary parkrun All the best for the rest of the weekend

Ah, that is interesting that Toys R Us is now a section in WH Smith... A far cry from the days when Toys R Us was a massive warehouse that was so big I could never decide on anything because there were too many options to choose from. Hopefully that will benefit both brands together, though - makes WH Smith a bit more like Woolworths used to be, which could be good or bad, I don't know...

Excellent to hear that the fridge-swapping went much smoother than originally envisioned, and faster too - without losing items of food and not too much inconvenience for your mum. I hope that it provides you with many years' service, is easy to adjust to the new door swing, and of course that no female characters end up inside it as a way to develop another's character.

I must admit that it has been many years since I watched 'Miranda', so while I know that he was in it, I only vaguely remember it.

The Toys'R'Us warehouse shop in Southampton still lies empty. I used to like it, but it was also annoying as they had a big sign up behind their customer service desk saying that they didn't deliver to the Isle of Wight. They also at one point stopped people entering the shop with backpacks, saying 'Leave all backpacks in your car'. I tried arguing that I hadn't travelled there by car so I should be able to carry my bag in, or they could provide lockers, but instead was told I couldn't enter. Despite that, I did have a loyalty card at one point - around the time that 'Phantom Menace' came out.

<BB<

Yes, it is a few years since I saw Miranda, and I didn’t catch all episodes so it is interesting to watch in order via iPlayer

We had quite a long journey to our nearest Toys R Us, so there was pressure to make the most of the day. That is rough about the backpacks - the probability that someone with a backpack also has a car is surely quite low, as it would be easier to put items in the car boot than carry it. . . Lockers would be a simple solution.

I had a good birding trip today - some access challenges, but I got great views of Bearded Reedlings, so it was a successful mission . Very friendly people, too - all made sure I could get to the wheelchair-height windows to see as well as possible . Just the cafe that was upstairs with no lift, but it was warm enough to sit outside

I would have thought that the ideal solution would be to not assume people with backpacks are shoplifting, or employ security to follow backpack wearers around the shop instead of banning bag-owning completely. Especially as the Babies-R-Us was aimed at people with babies, and parents taking their baby into a shop must, by definition, carry a lot with them.

Great to hear you've had a good birding trip despite the access issues, complete with bearded reedlings and friendly people, and warm weather.

We had an emergency in-person Union meeting yesterday. You probably know of the New JNCHES Pay Award recommended a 2.5% pay rise? Well, Solent have announced (but including the word 'consider' to make it sound a possibility but the Union have been told it is a done deal) that they are not going to implement the 2.5% pay rise until next summer, and they won't pay staff the 11 months backpay either.

Their statement reads,
"As set out by the Vice-Chancellor earlier this year, we continue to face ongoing financial pressures across the HE Sector. Whilst we have reason to be pleased with our performance in 2024 home undergraduate student recruitment and clearing, challenges remain in some areas of recruitment, such as overseas and postgraduate recruitment, leading to a shortfall in our financial business planning.
"Regrettably, this means the university is having to 'consider' deferring the implementation of the 2024/25 pay award for all staff by 11 months, to 1 July 2025. We recognise that this will be disappointing news, particularly in the external economic climate.
"We are carefully 'reviewing' the results of our 2024 enrolment process and 'considering all options' available to us. We will make a final decision and communicate the outcome in more detail as quickly as possible. Should it be necessary to defer the implementation of the pay award to 1 July 2025, we will consider the means of wellbeing support we can offer. Engagement with our unions on the deferral of the Pay Award 24/25 has already commenced.
"Whilst a difficult decision to make, by deferring the implementation of the pay award 24/25 for all staff to 1 July 2025, savings made would go a significant way towards providing more job security for the future.
"There is no change in our ambition to grow our way out of these challenges, and it is important that we all remain focussed on our 4 objectives: Grow Income, Grow Student Numbers, Drive Efficiencies and Control Costs."

The bit where they've written "we will consider the means of wellbeing support we can offer" essentially means that the university is willing to give its staff the pay rise they have earned; not in the form of wages, but as a loan.

Unsurprisingly there is a large degree of anger at work at the moment.

<BB<

That is disappointing that the uni is 'considering' not implementing the agreed uplifts... Potentially offering it as a loan is also a loose definition of 'wellbeing support'... Not surprising about the anger - good luck with it all I see the name change has been formally announced by OfS some weeks after the uni announced it I like the phrase that was used in the announcement I read: "there was little likelihood the name would prove misleading, given that it had been used between 2005 and 2017. "

I enjoyed the rest of my little holiday - I went to the railway station where Brief Encounter was filmed, and saw an exhibition about David Lean, plus a video about restoration of steam trains Then yesterday I went to Lancaster. Sadly it turns out Thursdays are the day when museums close there (unlike Liverpool where the closed day is Monday) so that was a disappointment, but it was interesting exploring the high street. Sounds similar to your area, as there was a CEX and a good number of charity shops including an Oxfam bookshop As I wasn't looking for shoes, by Zen Navigation I found a shoe shop and they had the shoes I like in my size, so that was a pleasant surprise

I think the 'considering' is basically 'this is what we plan to do, we're double-checking we'll be able to get away with it before we begin'.
It seems like once again the university is wasting money on pointless things like rebranding, new logos and name changes while simultaneously not caring about its staff. And at a time when Solent's made millions selling off assets, so it is well-known that there is money in the bank (with further details of accounts subject to the union making Freedom of Information requests in addition to the forthcoming publication of finances).

I've not been to Lancaster, have you been there before? Good to hear that you were able to find shoes even if not museums.

<BB<

Yes, that is bad taste to announce scrimping on staff at the same time as spending money on rebranding... There are ways for the powers that be to bring staff along with them on difficult journeys, and that's not it... Good luck with it all

I'd not been to Lancaster before, no. It was disappointing about the museums, as I do enjoy a museum and would have liked to learn more about the history of the city, but it was a very good day out even so

I hope you all had a good weekend. Mine was quite quiet - apart from food gathering, I went to Burton Mere for a bit, but the water levels are still too high for anything much apart from ducks so I didn't add to the list. I'm up to 98 species after Leighton Moss, though, so that's not bad - 105 seems a big challenge, but 100 should be possible within the next few weeks

98 species is a good number, yes definitely time to get to 100 with 2 1/2 months left

And at the time that Vice Chancellor's expenses have made the front pages - though I've not seen anything about ours. There'll probably be a FoI request about expenses.

The cats continue to be a challenge as our oldest cat Ollie has badly cut herself, so she had to go to the vets for an operation and spend the next two weeks indoors while wearing a jacket (it was that or a cone), so she isn't happy about that.

<BB<